Sunday, June 26, 2011

Copyright Issues? What The?

Remember these drawings that I posted earlier last month?

I sent them online to be printed and then picked up at a local pharmacy. This works well for me because it is so convenient and fast. I have done this for years and have been quite pleased with the quality, be it Walgreens or CVS, my local stores.

This time, I did everything the same as in the past. However, when I went inside to the photo counter to pick up the 8x10's, the clerk wouldn't release them to me. Very politely, he told me that he needed a copyright release to print out these images.

I kind of stuttered, trying to remember what images I had printed.... Then it dawned on me. It was my froggie and oyster! I kind of laughed out loud and exclaimed, "there is no copyright, those are my images, my artwork".

The clerk, slowly opened the photos and looked at the images. Then he looked at me. "You did these?" he asked, rather skeptically.

"Yes. One is an oyster and the other a frog. My signature LALA is on both of them.".

He looked at them both and said that he should call a manager over.

Meanwhile, he told me that his sister would like the frog image.... (I smiled. It was actually kind of flattering!)

So, the manager came over. The clerk explained that the photo tech flagged the images as needing a copyright release and I was here to pick them up. I drew the images so there was no copyright. The manager opened the photos, looked at them and then looked at me. "These are your artwork?" he asked.

I nodded, racking my brain to try and figure out how I could prove that they were...

"They are good." He initialed the work order and told the clerk to ring up my photos....

Hmmm. That was very odd.

I got to the car, a bit flustered. I didn't know if I should be flattered or irked to no end! I think I was a little of both!

1 comment:

It's true photo places and copy places can be held responsible and sued for copying images, especially professional photographers. You should feel flattered., maybe you need to make a release for your own images.